Page:The Life of Mr. Richard Savage - Johnson (1727).djvu/19

 Prologue and Epilogue were both wrote by that Gentleman; in the former are these Lines concerning the Author.

In a full World, our Author lives, alone! Unhappy—and, of Consequence unknown; Yet, amidst Sorrow, he disdains Complaint; Nor, languid, in the Race of Life, grows faint. He swims, unyielding, against Fortune's Stream, Nor, to his private Sufferings, stoops his Theme: Adopts the Pains, which others undergo; And for your Pleasure, feels not his own Woe.

The next Year he was perswaded by his Friends to publish his Poems by Subscription, but not being enough in Number to make a compleat Volume, he was favoured with those of several other Gentlemen, among which, Mr. Hill has the largest Share. And the Author of a Paper which came out at that Time, call'd the Plain Dealer, recommended his Undertaking in a very handsome Manner, to the Publick: In which, speaking of him, he says, Perhaps few Things could be more surprizing than an History of his Birth and Usage! Of two Fathers, whom he might have claim'd, and both of them Noble, he lost the Title of the one, and a Provision from the other's Pity, by the Means alone of his Mother! Who, as if she had resolv'd not